Review: “Letter of the Law” by Alan E. Nourse (1954)
Posted on January 16th, 2008
Short story that catches up with a con man, Harry Zeckler, after he’s caught fleecing the sheep (well, bears at least) on Altair I. Zeckler makes an appeal to the Terran Consulate, expecting extradition, but the Terran Trading Commission is unwilling to jeopardize the lucrative trade to this newly-opened planet. Complicating things, it turns out that a land swindle like Zeckler pulled happens to be a capital offense on Altair I.
The kangaroo (bear again, actually) court is set to string him up before before hearing the evidence. Zeckler manages to put his best skill, lying, to good(ish) use in securing both his freedom and his ill-gotten gains.
For me, this story stood head and shoulders above Nourse’s “A PRoblem.” On an odd note, the characters’ actions kept this reader’s loyalties shifting, and I don’t know if it was on purpose. For example, the story was told from the Terran Commission representative’s perspective, who viewed Zeckler as a slimeball. Yet by the end of the story, the rep seemed priggish and this reader was rooting for Zeckler to make a clean getaway. I don’t know if that’s because I’m not relating to a straightforward 1950s morality tale or the author was commenting on the tension between the individual, the government, and political expediency.
Fair to recommended. You can talk the good folks over at Project Gutenberg into giving it to you in a couple formats or the folks at Manybooks.net into providing it in more.
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Review: “A PRoblem” by Alan E. Nourse (1956)
Posted on January 15th, 2008
Short story concerning an invited invasion of reptilian aliens occurring at an unspecified time in the near future. The aliens, called the Grdznth, are forced to leave their own world because their sun is about to go nova. The Grdznth have hopped through parallel dimensions until finding an uninhabited world that they can tolerate, although it is so cold they are unable to reproduce.
In exchange for using Earth for a short period while their womenfolk gestate, they offer the secret to their inter-dimensional physics, which includes the key to developing null-gravity applications. The American public, however, doesn’t care much for the Grdznth due to their habit of popping into this dimension without warning, their less than cuddly appearance, and their insufferable politeness.
Hence the PRoblem. Get it, P.R.? As in Public Relations? So the government calls in PR hotshot Pete Greenwood to take care of the image issue. Pete manages to come up with a campaign to sway public opinion for awhile, but realizes he can only hold on so long without some Grdznth babies to parade in front of the cameras. Talking to the tech guy trying to comprehend the mathematics behind the alien devices, Pete finds a bigger problem than his own.
Reads like an Outer Limits episode.
Poor to Fair. Available at Project Gutenberg in a couple formats or at Manybooks.net
Tags: free science fiction, public domain science fiction, Review, speculative fiction
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